Tim Cahill vows to stay in Massachusetts governor’s race

Lane Lambert

Saturday

Sep 25, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 25, 2010 at 9:18 AM

Less than 24 hours after a senior adviser and campaign manager abruptly left, Quincy independent candidate Tim Cahill says he has “no intention of quitting or leaving; I have every intention of winning.”.

A distant third in the polls and shaken by the abrupt departure of two key campaign staffers, state Treasurer Tim Cahill says he’s staying in the governor’s race.

“We move forward, and it’s not the consultants or the pollsters or the pundits that are going to decide this race, but the people of Massachusetts, and I’ve still got a great message that’s resonating,” said Cahill. “I have no intention of quitting or leaving; I have every intention of winning.”

The Quincy independent candidate made his comments less than 24 hours after senior adviser John Weaver and campaign manager Adam Meldrum abruptly quit. Weaver said Cahill could only be a spoiler, helping Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick’s re-election over Republican challenger Charlie Baker.

Less than six weeks before the Nov. 2 general election, that leaves Scott Campbell back where he was eight years ago – at the helm of a Cahill campaign.

On Friday the Quincy state treasurer swiftly named Campbell as his new campaign manager. Cahill said Weaver’s role was already on the wane, while Campbell was becoming more involved.

“Scott’s been really the presence of this campaign, the leader of this campaign,” Cahill said. “He’s got experience in winning two statewide elections for me.”

Cahill told the State House News Service that the departures are “a speed bump, not an accident.” Asked again if he plans to stay in the race, he said, “Oh God, yeah.”

Campbell, who also lives in Quincy, has been Cahill’s campaign finance director since May. He’s also chief of staff in the treasurer’s office.

In 2002 he ran Cahill’s first successful run for treasurer, starting with Cahill’s upset win in the Democratic primary. Campbell worked in Cahill’s 2006 re-election campaign, and has held numerous jobs on Cahill’s state staff since 2003.

Weaver and Meldrum both worked on Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 2000 Weaver helped shaped McCain’s maverick persona in the New Hampshire primary. But he left Cahill’s campaign because he said the treasurer could only help Patrick, “the most liberal candidate in the race,” win re-election.

Cahill fired back at that view on Friday, too.

“That’s been a story that the Republicans have been selling and spinning for the last six months,” he said at his Quincy campaign headquarters. “If their candidate (Baker) isn’t good enough to win this on his own ... maybe he’s not that good.”

Cahill said he disagreed with Weaver, because Weaver wanted him to air attack ads like the ones the Republican Governors Association ran against Cahill this spring – to devastating effect.

Campbell got his political start with Cahill’s 2002 run for treasurer. A graduate of Quincy College, he worked in the telecommunications industry at the time. Married with a daughter, he’s been a youth football coach, and is completing a four-year degree at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com.

Material from the Associated Press and State House News Service was used for this report.

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